Wedding Planning

I’m so excited to be finally wedding planning, it’s such an exciting experience but also a little stressful. Now the time is edging closer and closer the more stressed and nervous I’m starting to feel.

It’s been two whole years since Mr W got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife in front of all of our family! I’m now coming to the realisation that I’ll be walking down the aisle to meet my beloved hubby-to-be in less than 5 months. I cannot believe I’m going to soon be a wife, it still hasn’t sunk in 100% that I’m a mummy so it’s going to take some time to get used to being called Mr W’s wife.

We’re trying not to go overboard with costs, in my head I’m thinking you only do it once so why not go all out but I’m also thinking, it’s only one day, less that 12 hours it’s going to last. I guess every bride to be is stuck in the middle of you only do it once and it’s only one day!

Where It All Began…….

April 5th 2009, 17 years of age, still in sixth form and we’d been friends for a while as my cousin friends with Mr W and thats how I met him. I’m going to be completely honest I can’t remember exactly how we got together, I think he asked me out on MSN and we had each others names on our MSN profile, cheesy, and we used the whole ‘ILY’ in our texts which is even cheesier.

Teenagers

September 18th 2016, we had a house warming party as we’d not long moved into our first purchased home together. We were all in the back garden having drinks and chatting when lee stood at the end of the garden and asked for everyones attention. He then asked me to go to him and proceeded to thank all of our family for being there and for helping us with the move and providing house warming gifts. Then the big moment came completely unexpected, he turned to me, got on one knee and asked me to marry him through the tears. I was completely shocked and stunned this was happening, I’d waited 7 whole years for this moment. I said ‘YES‘ and he stood up and we tried to figure out which finger the ring went on, we had absolutely no idea.

The Proposal

February 8th 2018, our beautiful bundle of joy, Oscar-George joined us! Find out more about my pregnancy and birth here.

He’s Arrived

April 5th 2019, on our 10th anniversary of being together we tie the knot! We chose this day as it was so special and meant a lot as it would be 10 years together to the date and we usually celebrate on that day anyway, so why not go all the way and get married that day! I honestly cannot wait to become Mr W’s wife.

Wedding Planning

As soon as we got engaged I knew I would start wedding planning straight away. We saw about a handful of venues and both agreed on the perfect one, we put a deposit down and paid for the venue. I went wedding dress shopping once and found my Dream Dress! I knew it was the one as soon as I tried it on, I had two groups of strangers in the shop telling me how that was the dress and how beautiful it was. I’ve had it stored away now at my mums for over a year! I just knew that was the one and still know it’s the one, regardless of how many wedding TV shows I watch I know my dress is perfect for me and I cannot wait to wear it.

We’ve already got a lot done but we’ve still got so much left to plan. Here’s a list of what we’ve sorted out so far, paid deposits on or paid in full:

Dress

Bridesmaid Dresses

Groomsmen Suits

Venue

Cars

DJ

Food & Drink

Wedding Shoes & Accessories

Church

Centre Pieces

Rings

Invites Sent

Music (first dance, walking down isle, register signing)

Cake

Bridal Suite

Name Places

Table Plan

Honeymoon

Photographer

Wedding Certificate & Registration

Flowers (when in season)

We still have so much to sort, flower girl dresses, pageboy suits, hair, make up, dress fittings, hen & stag preparations. As I’ve had maternity leave to enjoy and haven’t been at work I’ve managed to make my own craft decorations which has been cheaper and it’s given me something to do when Oscar is napping through the day. I’ve made my own name place cards myself, and I’ve had a few crafty things bought that I’ve put together. Aldi have had a fantastic range of wedding decorations. We purchased our wedding invites and guest book from there, along with a few other bits and bobs for the big day.

I haven’t really felt stressed out yet but I know that once Christmas is over I’m going to be a bridezilla. There’s certain things I can’t organise yet like the flowers because it’s a spring wedding I’m using spring flowers. We’ve had family help out with costs of the wedding which we are extremely thankful for and are blessed they’ve been able to help. My mum paid the deposit for the venue and my dad and step mum paid for the cake and delivery to the venue. We’ve ordered our wedding cake from Cake-A-Daisy, I’ve heard nothing but good reviews about their cakes and they are always decorated to perfection. We’ve had a really good deal in my opinion, for a 3 tier semi-naked fruit & chocolate cake, 6 gluten free cupcakes and the top tier egg free including delivery and assembly at the venue its cost £350! I’m so excited to try it and see the final design.

I have 7 bridesmaids, (mainly family), 3 flower girls, 5 groomsmen and 3 pageboys including Oscar! My sister is my maid of honour and my best friend of 23 years is my chief bridesmaid, Mr W’s best man is his brother.

I’ve tried to spend as much time making my own DIY crafts for the wedding, I’m not having any planners to help with the wedding I’m doing it all with the help of our families. I’m still currently searching for a lit up white tree that you can usually find around Christmas time for my ‘tree of life’. This will have all of our family on their own cardboard heart and photo who couldn’t be with us, I’m also looking at naming my tables after our family members who sadly aren’t with us anymore, just so they still have a part of the wedding day.

I’m making my own favours with the help of my mum and I’m also making my own children activity packs to keep the little ones entertained throughout the sit down meal and speeches. I’m trying to write this without giving too much detail away about the day, I’m just so excited that I am finally going to be marrying Mr W! I feel as though it is going to be even more of a special day with Oscar with us, when we first got engaged I never imagined having our first child at our wedding, we always said we wanted children after the wedding but things don’t always go to plan and I’m absolutely over the moon that he will be celebrating with us.

We’ve decided on our hen and stag weekends, we’re going for March 2019 for both, one weekend myself and my hens will be parading the streets of Manchester and Mr W and his stags will be rolling around the streets of Cheltenham. I’ve already booked accommodation for our weekend but men being men will leave it last minute. We’re still waiting on the venue to finalise times and food menus, apparently we have to wait until after January for that.

We’ve booked our honeymoon and the deposit is paid, we’re waiting until a month after our wedding to visit a beautiful greek island and staying for 10 nights in an adult only, 5* resort, we have been extremely lucky to book ourselves into a villa within the resort with a private garden and swimming pool. I’ve never had the privilege to stay in a resort like it before and I’m ridiculously excited, just nervous and worried about leaving Oscar as he won’t be joining us. Thankfully our families have agreed that they will have Oscar for the 10 days we’re away which is a great help, I just don’t know how I’m going to feel when I have to say goodbye for a week and a half. I would like to take Oscar away for a weekend after the wedding and honeymoon so at least he can still have a little mini holiday with us, we’ve been looking at Disneyland Paris but it’s so expensive for a weekend.

One thing I keep forgetting to do is the legal side, we’ve sorted out the marriage certificate and registration but we’re still yet to sort out wedding insurance. I didn’t even realise you have to register to get married, it wasn’t until I was told by a family member. We’re quite lucky too as my Uncle is a pastor of his own church so he’s going to marry us, I think it makes it that little bit more special when it’s family.

I cannot wait to update you all about how our wedding day panned out, I’ve been told by a few people to expect at least ONE thing to go wrong. Thank you for reading this post and if you have any suggestion, advice or tips please feel free to comment, all welcome.

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Hi I’m Hayley, first time mummy and first time blogger, Mummy to Oscar and Wife-To-Be to Lee. Working full-time in ED and living in the West Midlands, I survive on cups of tea during the day and gin on Friday nights.